30. November 2009

As you know, UML (Unified Modeling Language) is a standardized general purpose modeling language . It includes a set of graphical notation techniques to create visual models of the software-intensive systems. There are many business process, architecture, software and system modeling design tools based on the UML. Now you can create a perfect chartflow in a few minutes. Following we have collect 60+ very useful UML tools for your reference. Hope they will be helpful to your work if you still design the chart flow only in the excel.

What Google has done is introduced a “Just in Time” information economy. It’s a little presumptuous to say that we’re at the beginning and that internet search marks an entirely new science. Really, this still comes down to how we seek and use information. The internet and search has represented a monumental shift, yes, but it’s not a new ball game. And I certainly hope we don’t have to wait hundreds of years for significant advancements in the state of search.

Dan Zarrella is an award-winning social media and viral marketing scientist, writer, and speaker. His new book is The Social Media Marketing Book. In this interview I try to pin him down and tell me when to use specific social media platforms, services and practices to run a business.

Ein sehr interessantes Interview.

28. November 2009

Although many businesses now recognise the importance of regularly updated content to their search engine optimisation (SEO) efforts, not enough of them understand the importance of quality content. This is apparent from many of the badly-penned blogs, rubbishy ‘news’ stories and plagiarised or simply stolen articles that the web is gradually filling up with.

The main reason web sites are built is so that they are functional to be USED. It’s a simple as that. They are tools, references and resources, nothing more. And as web designers, we need to always remember that. Designing a web site needs to be about the user and only for the user and every possible need of said user has to have been foreseen and catered for. Only then can a web site be usable. That is what USABILITY is. Ok, that might be the worst description of web usability that you have ever read, but I am sure you get the point. Usability is important. Very important. The most important. The big question is ‘how do I make my website usable?’ That question has no real clear answer. Usability is not a science and is one of the most debated subjects within web design. There are only guidelines that you can follow and advice that you can seek.

26. November 2009

We were finding that as detailed as our wireframe documentation was, it was falling flat when trying to show transitions like self heal and progressive reveals. We needed something that could show and tell the story of the experience better—we turned to prototyping.

25. November 2009

Hotels and spas tend to go together. As shown by some of the examples featured in this post, spas are often one of several amenities offered besides standard hotel rooms. As a result, the spa is often a micro-site within the hotel or resort page. While some of the trends to hotel design carry over (e.g. highly visual photography), the target audience is more specific than that of the average hotel.

24. November 2009

What is paired design? If you haven’t heard, Cooper interaction designers work in pairs throughout the duration of a project. Generally, there’s one interaction designer responsible for generating ideas, or “gens”, and another interaction designer for synthesizing ideas, or “synths”.

“Failing fast” means getting putting applications out in the wild as soon as possible to learn whether they will succeed. This gives you access to early user feedback to quickly weed out ideas and methods that don’t work. Failing fast is a good thing—or, at least, it's preferable to failing slowly and spending too much time, effort and money developing a product that should have been put to rest earlier. Money and time you save by cutting off unsuccessful projects quickly will mean you have more money and time for the successful ones. The concept of failing fast can help businesspeople and stakeholders reduce the riskiness of launching products by letting real users and the marketplace dictate their product choices.

23. November 2009

Body language can speak more strongly than words. Make sure you say the right things with it. [...] Project yourself as a confident, welcoming person, and your clients, colleagues and bosses will be attracted to you, keen on doing business with you and on promoting you within your organization.

Several people have told me that they suspect OmniOutliner would be a great tool to comb, group, and create the mental model diagram. Well, their suspicions are correct! Not only is it a nice way to collect the data, organize it into labels, quotes, participant IDs, dates, team member, etc., but it's also great for massaging all that data into hierarchical groups.

21. November 2009

No single user is “special” - or maybe all users are? Either way you look at it, we as interaction designers will encounter contexts of use or knowledge domains out of the ordinary at some point or other during our career. In my experience, designers need not apply magic tools when designing for special situations. It is however beneficial to bear in mind some core differences between specialized use contexts and the mainstream use of a mass consumer product such as a social networking site or a mobile phone. And that’s what I want to focus on in this article.

Eine schöne Wochenendlektüre. Genau das Richtige.

20. November 2009

Now you can view all the videos from the first icon minds. Watch Farshid Moussavi, Charles Jencks and Marjan Colletti discuss the return of ornament; Dunne & Raby and Bruce Sterling talk about design fiction; Joseph Grima and Julien de Smedt on the pressures of running a young and successful architecture practice; and Ronan Bouroullec in conversation with icon's editor Justin McGuirk. All the talks are available in short or long versions.

Semantic Web technologies are moving beyond the laboratory and finding a role in the wider business world. Traditional companies such as Reuters and Oracle are putting semantic technologies to work, and startups are attracting increasing venture capital investment. Talis has launched a magazine called Nodalities that bridges the divide between those building the Semantic Web and those interested in applying it to their business requirements.

19. November 2009

Form fields are one of those things that users expect to fill out every single field, because they don’t want to have to figure out error messages when they are wrong. Because they have been trained that most web forms are ineffective, they do as much work as possible or walk away, leaving either a frustrated user, a lost sale, or both.

Every layout begins with a blank page or empty space. When we add an element, its placement can be determine how successful the design will be. Effective design initiates communication and an interest from the viewer whether it’s in print or on the web.

18. November 2009

Semiotics is interested in the relationship between things, thoughts, and signs - a sign being a discrete unit of meaning. Signification is the process through which certain systems of signs are established by virtue of social and cultural conventions adopted by the users; who are the interpreters and producers of such signs. Semiotics can be defined as the study of signs, signification processes, and how signs and signification take part in communication.

17. November 2009

This first column provides a brief introduction to interaction design—defining the scope this column will cover—then explores some key design principles. What is interaction design? Good interaction design facilitates people’s tasks and ensures that digital products are both learnable and usable by reducing complexity as much as possible….

The concept of the left and right brain only lately popped up in the late 1960’s, but since has become a well-known part of human psychology. While we all use both sides of the brain, each of us has a dominant side, and this dominant side makes up for a huge part of our personalities.

15. November 2009

Conclusion:Napkee is a very interesting tool and a useful add-on if you are working with Balsamiq Mockups. It integrates smoothly into your prototyping workflow. For $49 you get good functionality. If you are a little bit into coding, you get a great opportunity to finetune your mockups and prototypes. (my other reviews)

Prototyping and testing during the early stages of a project is the key for a successful desktop or web application. This is the ultimate goal of Napkee. [...] Napkee supports most of the controls you can find in Balsamiq Mockups. [...] Napkee supports two project natures: web and flex. The first one generates a set of HTML, CSS and Javascript files and the second one generates a Flex Builder 3-ready project. In this nature you can also generate standalone code: from Napkee's preferences you can choose either to export to a web flex project or to an AIR one.

Those who think video games are not educational, this post is for you. Not only can video games be an enjoyable experience, they can teach us many things. Websites and video games often use similar concepts about usability in order to achieve an amazing end-product. I’ve come up with 6 essential concepts that video games can teach web designers about usability. [...] On the web, functionality needs to be priority over design. Once a site functions properly, then you can apply the interface to it.

Schöner Blog-Post. Genau das Richtige für einen gemütlichen Sonntag.

14. November 2009

Good “Coming soon” pages come in two basic varieties: the informational design, which simply tells visitors what will be there after launch; and the page that invites early visitors to sign up for updates or even to request a beta (or alpha) invitation.

Usability testing is generally scenario or task-based. Your company writes out a bunch of scenarios and the testing company sees if users can complete the tasks. For example, "A man needs to find a graphics card that will work with his computer and his monitor." This is the task, and the usability tests will report on where in the path the user got stuck, what he had wanted to do, and whether he was successful. That's what the company you hire will report on, because that's what you asked.

A growing number of businesses are making Facebook an indispensible part of hanging out their shingles. Small businesses are using it to find new customers, build online communities of fans and dig into gold mines of demographic information.

13. November 2009

Having very out-dated websites representing an entire country can’t be a good thing – at all. They are difficult to use, the text is usually difficult to read, they have ridiculously slow loading speeds (depending on the country, of course), some of them are so bad they hurt your eyes.

Exploring options early on prepares a team for overcoming any hitches that happen down the road. Having tried out different design solutions, then talking through the pros and cons of each, the team will learn how to respond to different situations. As they move through the refinement and development process, they can draw upon their early thinking to resolve complications that crop up.

12. November 2009

The goal of the strategy phase is to ensure that all stakeholders are similarly focused and aligned around project goals, i.e there is agreement in principle about the purpose of the project and the priorities for implementation. A high level agreement to what the project is, why we are doing it, and how it will be achieved reduces the risk of budget blow outs or conflicts in the design phase by ensuring that all project stakeholders have similar expectations. In addition, it is only through an understanding of the scale and complexity of the project that the design team can accurately, or at least confidently produce a budget or estimate for the project.

Usability research can show you how successfully users engage with your website and how you can improve it to better fit user needs, but ethnographic research can tell you about the circumstances users go through before they interact with you online, and tell you about user’s needs that you weren’t aware of.

11. November 2009

The real challenge of web design today is to design websites with their end users in mind. This involves designing from the point of view of “user experience”. When someone visits a website for the first time, and finds all the information they need without confusion, and can then carry out all their tasks without failing: that’s when we can say that the site has a “great user experience”.

Der Artikel ist der letzte Teil einer ganzen Serie.

10. November 2009

Websites are social creatures. Or rather, their users are. In turn, the websites you visit are tempered by the users that interact with them. Your experience with a website, say facebook.com, is directly linked to the people with which you interact on that website. But this introduces an interesting challenge for a user experience designer: do you design for the intial experience or the resulting experience?

Email newsletters are hotter than ever. They’re a great extension to your business’ communication toolkit and offer you and your clients an excellent channel by which you can reach potential and existing customers. In this article, we’ll explore common design patterns of email newsletters and learn which approaches work well, so that you’ll be prepared to create one for yourself and your clients.

9. November 2009

Breadcrumb navigation is often overlooked in the design and development process. Some people may see it as unnecessary while others may feel it is too big of a hassle for what its worth. Fact of the matter is, breadcrumb navigation will greatly increase the usability of a website. Breadcrumbs give users an alternative method of navigation, allow them to see where they stand in the hierarchy of a website, and will reduce the number of steps needed to navigate to a higher-level within a website.

Physical navigation is often used as a metaphor for traversing of a hypertext or a database. The activity that users engage in as they follow links in a hypertext is the navigation that we consider to be a browsing strategy. In this strategy, the process and the information found along the way are what is important… This type of navigation is in contrast with the goal-oriented physical navigation that uses cues from the environment only to check progress towards a goal.

8. November 2009

Today’s shoppers have high expectations when it comes to buying online. Websites which take too long to load can result in negative brand perception, diminished goodwill and a significant loss in overall sales. In our recent webinar Every Second Counts: How Website Performance Impacts Shopper Behavior, we explored the findings of a new study by Forrester Research on behalf of Akamai which has identified two seconds as the new threshold for acceptable web page response times.

Der Text enthält einige interessante Daten und Fakten.

7. November 2009

A lot of focus is put on using web analytics data to make incremental improvements in site performance. But as audiences, brands, products, and technologies change – sometimes a site needs a complete redesign. When it’s time for a complete site overhaul, it’s important to dive deep into the web analytics for the site early in the process.

Kann man mal kurz überfliegen.

6. November 2009

Calculating and even trying to understand what all adds up to the UX ROI is difficult task. When we are faced with clients and investors – ROI is something they often ask for. How to even start thinking about return on investment in the field of user experience?

Studies have demonstrated that even a split-second delay in thinking on the user’s part will weaken their perception and interest in a website and ultimately lower the website’s conversion rate. In certain niches and industries, having UI elements that are not obvious in their use may be perfectly acceptable. The blogging and web development industry are perfect examples.

4. November 2009

A good design only makes sense if it is measurable. In order to make the success measurable, you need to lay down what metrics you are trying to improve. Web design is no longer just about making stuff look good, but has undergone a radical change from being just about aesthetics to being a strategic tool to improve business. Successful design is aligned with the business. Successful design metrics are aligned with business metrics.

Ritz-Carlton has become a leading brand in luxury lodging by rigorously adhering to its own standards. It is the only service company in America that has won the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award twice, and Training Magazine has called it the best company in the nation for employee training. Its unique culture starts with a motto: "We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen."

Participants can perform a wide variety of tasks as they typically would on the web. As with moderated research, you need to decipher whether comments made were “properly answered” with the truest answer. Again, with the right technology, a researcher has control of the study, even if it’s not moderated.

With a new year on the horizon, it’s time to pack away the old, worn web designs and prepare for the brave, new face of tomorrow. Although trends don’t start and stop on January 1st, there is a definite shift from what we craved at the beginning of the year to what we are seeking tutorials for at the end of the year. Most of the time, this shift is subtle. It’s a perfection or re-interpretation of a currently hot trend.

The Complete Guide to Google Wave is a collaborative user manual for Google Wave written and edited by Gina Trapani with Adam Pash. Launched one month after the Google Wave preview release, this guide is the most current, comprehensive, independent user resource for the most ambitious (and confusing) web application ever created. In the spirit of Google Wave, this guide is a bold experiment in collaboration and public iteration, as well as independent book publishing.

Many SEO topics are like good games - you can learn the basics in a few hours, but really mastering them can take years. One topic that seems simple but that generates a ton of questions here on SEOmoz is URLs: How to construct them, how to optimize them, what the pieces are, etc.

Kann man sich wunderbar ausdrucken und an die Wand kleben.

2. November 2009

The new design is beautiful, clean, organized and well-structured. It invites the eye to scan and find something interesting with the goal of clicking through to another page. The previous design was somewhat cluttered and not very inviting; the content looked liked it was being forced into an unstructured space. The new layout is very different and embraces a number of modern web design and usability best practices and trends.

The primary task of an online shop is to get the user to purchase something. It is this reason why elements on their web pages such as descriptions, price information, and related products should be well thought out and must be purposeful. Among these page elements is the "add to Cart" or "add to basket" button, which is essential in its role as an important call to action.

Netter Blog-Post mit einigen guten Beispielen.

1. November 2009

Deep in the bowels of the internet, I came across an exhaustive list of interesting Wikipedia articles by Ray Cadaster. It’s brilliant reading when you’re bored, so I got his permission to post the top 50 here.